Does anyone else have a game that can just lull you into a transe for hours at a time? The original Columns does that to me. Once I get into a good zone, it practically plays all by itself with all of those lovely chains and soothing music and gem-bumping sound effects and can easily play well past level 200 straight if there's nothing around to distract me and my eyes go all droopy and unfocused and I sorta hit a state of gamer enlightenment. :angel: hehe

Anyone else have a game they can just zone right out with at such a level?

- Cirrus

Neknoh

06-02-2008, 12:58

there was this Tower Defence game (not the Desktop Tower Defence) where you had this grid on the side of the course and you placed towers with different abillities and ranges in that grid and then you sent in the... err... neon-coloured-shape-wave

Anyone have a link? I loved it to pieces... and it took hours off of my weekends :p

Cirrus the Blue

06-02-2008, 13:04

I saw a game on TV the other day that's supposed to be coming out on the 360 pretty soon that has the player build a bunch of towers and then a line of monsters walks through and your towers defend your kingdom or whatever from these monsters if they've been positioned properly. This sounds similar, no? :) Might even be a remake of sorts, perhaps? That'd be really neat if it was, 'cause the one you just mentioned sounds pretty fun!

- Cirrus

TheBigBadWolf

06-02-2008, 15:46

endless ocean on the wii
shenmue 1 or 2 on the dreamcast

Hours could go by and you wouldnt notice playing those games

Wraith

06-02-2008, 17:33

there was this Tower Defence game (not the Desktop Tower Defence) where you had this grid on the side of the course and you placed towers with different abillities and ranges in that grid and then you sent in the... err... neon-coloured-shape-wave

Anyone have a link? I loved it to pieces... and it took hours off of my weekends :p

Does anyone else have a game that can just lull you into a transe for hours at a time? The original Columns does that to me. Once I get into a good zone, it practically plays all by itself with all of those lovely chains and soothing music and gem-bumping sound effects and can easily play well past level 200 straight if there's nothing around to distract me and my eyes go all droopy and unfocused and I sorta hit a state of gamer enlightenment. :angel: hehe

That's the concept of "flow" in videogames. A status in which the chellenge and the fun provided are balanced to the person playing it. It can pretty much happen in every game, although it depends from person to person (according to favourite genres, etc).

It has happened a decent amount of times to me playing Gran Turismo and Virtua Fighter. In GT it's most noticeable because I basically lose notion of the environment around me. I can't feel myself breathing, blinking, whatever, I just hear the car's engine and perform perfect moves on the steering wheel. I must say I have been through it only on endurance races, after more or less a two hour period.

In fighting games it's different. It usually comes up when I'm in total synchrony with the opponent (be it AI or human) and can predict every move. But yeah, great topic on strange video game experiences :p

redbaron998

07-02-2008, 05:57

Well when I was addicted to WOW back in the day that would happen, get home on Friday back when I was in high school, look at the clock and realize in sometime sunday morning.

But FF3 and Chrono Tigger did that to me back in the day. Could play for hours and hours and love every bit of it. Gundam wing endless duel do that to me as well.

lets see what more recent....well i forsee a dark future for my college grades when Warhammer Online comes out

Leviathan

07-02-2008, 10:06

Hello,

For game play it deffinatly happens to me for games like WoW and RTS' like DoW and Total War, content wise RPGs like Mass Effect and The FF series certainly have this effect too.

I'm convinced its a form of time travel. You start playing and when you re-enter reality it's four hours later and your sitting there clutching a game pad wondering wtf happened to your weekend. :p

The_Outsider

07-02-2008, 10:27

GTA.

Anyone will do.

theunwantedbeing

07-02-2008, 10:42

Tetris or stuff like that.....
Racing games.
FPS, etc

Usually I can get myself into the "zone" where all I can see and feel is the game.
Usually with racing games where your doing los of laps like an endurance race, or tetris where you are doing the same task over and over. With FPS it'll be killing things over and over that creates the repetition.

Apparently your supposed to stop when that happens.....

Bubble Ghost

07-02-2008, 12:41

Hexic on the 360. I thought it was rubbish at first, but then I 'got' it and now I think it's great. It puts you into a trance deliberately, if the music is anything to go by.

nurgle_boy

07-02-2008, 12:44

Tetris. I have even induced 'the tetris effect' from playing it.

Failing that, I can play any sandbox game (at the moment im hooked on the 'burning sand' mod of the 'fallingsandgame'), or a TD game...

Chews up hours of my life...

der_lex

07-02-2008, 12:55

Tetris as well, and any Civilization game. I lose track of time so quickly when I play those...

Deamon-forge

07-02-2008, 12:57

GTA.

Anyone will do.

2nd that.......

Also WOW i took 2 weeks of work just to play the expansion pack (damn i am sad) havnt played it tho in a bout 3-4months now, as it was taking over my other hobbies etc.

Tetris as well, and any Civilization game. I lose track of time so quickly when I play those...

True about Civ. games. I have Civ. 4, when it decides it wants to work and not screw up I can play it for hours, taking over the world...

At least on the easy modes, I suck at anything above "Warlord" difficulty.

Shinobido has a major failing in this area, it doesn't flow. When you're in a level it flows, but the stuff inbetween levels doesn't.

Especcially the garden. You occasionally get attacked and have to fight barbarians/enemy lords' troops in the garden. It sucks, it's nothing like the rest of the game. The rest of the game is stealth, leaping up walls and over rooftops, quietly dispatching the enemy and then throwing all the evidence down a well/off a cliff. The garden fights are random and chaotic, stealth is absolutely useless, and there's no way to hide from enemies.

The levels are awesome though. Unless you get into fights, stealth is far easier than having to kill people in swordfights...

Spangley Special

07-02-2008, 19:40

settelers of catan on 360
kula world on psx
tetris
hitman
gta
forza

Chaplain of Chaos

07-02-2008, 20:51

There is a game called Rex HD that was released for xbox live arcade, it used to be on dreamcast.

You play this hacker in a virtual world and everything you kill makes a tone that adds to an overarching beat.

The game becomes quite hypnotic as the music builds.

SwordsofChaos

07-02-2008, 21:07

Someone said Hexic on the 360, and I just have to agree. I can relax to that game.

The pestilent 1

08-02-2008, 00:04

Tetris as well, and any Civilization game. I lose track of time so quickly when I play those...

Good lord, last time I played civilisation I can remember "Just one more turn..."
Next thing I know, I've conquered half the world, accidentally attacked my ally (Screw you Orange and Brown. Or Yellow... Whichever it was :mad: ) and lost half my empire. :D